So, this one time I did IVF.

Where we left things: Suppressed!

Y’all. Things have been crazy. Up and down. High then low. Certain, then uncertain, then back to a certainty. My emotions are all over the place. I’m all over the place. I’ve had so much to say and so much to update about and no words to say it. My brain feels fairly discombobulated and like any post I try to make about all of this will just turn into a giant cluster…..mess?

So, let me just back up to where we left off(being suppressed) and update you on everything I had to do to make it to egg retrieval.

*Warning* This is boring- this is primarily for my own memory or current IVF’ers who like to compare treatment plans. Feel free to skim.

Remember this ginormous pile of medicine? Yeah. I finally got to use it- and then some.

5/31 Start/continue 3 pills a day. Dexamethasone, prenatal vitamin, and low dose baby aspirin.

5/31 Begin Lupron injections 2x a day, 10 units.

6/1 Continue pills and lupron

6/2 Continue pills and lupron

Begin stims(shots).

Gonal F- 337 units

Menopur 1 vial

6/3 same as 6/2

6/4 bloodwork

Estrogen levels came back high. They like to see them between 100-300 at this point and mine came back at 439. So they have me drop my dose a bit.

6/4 Continue pills, lupron, and Menopur 1 vial. Drop Gonal F to 150 units.

6/5 and 6/6 all the same meds.

6/7 bloodwork and ultrasound at RRC

I didn’t know what to expect at this appointment, but I was really worried since my estrogen levels were already high and that was what got me canceled back in April. I was hopeful, but worried about being disappointed. I was excited to see how many follicles I had, but stressed about my diagnosis(DOR/Diminished Ovarian Reserve) and there only being a small number that had grown. I was trying to relax and pray and rest and trust- but it was really hard.

Turns out, my ultrasound looked great. There were 15/16 follicles growing, all in the range they like to see, and all close together. Which is good.

My estradiol came back high again though- 1717. Reduced stims again.

6/7 continued pills, added in colace 2x a day, and lupron.

Stopped Menopur

Dropped Gonal F to 100

6/8 same pills and lupron. Gonal F to 75.

6/9 same pills and lupron. Gonal F to 50.

6/10 bloodwork and ultrasound at RRC

This appointment I was excited for. This was going to be the last appointment before retrieval! Everything looked great, my follicles were all still there, all in a great range. We talked over specifics of meds, retrieval plans, and transfer plans. They call me every afternoon after my bloodwork comes back and we reiterate everything.

This whole time we have been planning on doing a 5 day transfer. 5 days after retrieval, we will implant 1-2 embryo’s and freeze any remaining.

That may not be an option to us now.

My estrogen levels had skyrocketed. Going from 1717 on Friday to over 5000 on Monday. This puts me at severe risk for developing OHSS(Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome). Which is a fun thing that crops up after egg retrieval due to drastic hormonal changes. The follicles that are aspirated fill back up with fluid…..and then your whole abdomen can as well. Which leads to sudden weight gain, stomach pain, bleeding, constipation, shortness of breath, nausea and/or vomiting, and all sorts of other fun things that I wasn’t expecting at all. Particularly, because I felt perfectly fine at the time aside from some expected hormonal stuff. And from crazy bloating. But, I was growing 16 eggs….that’s pretty much expected.

Anyway, if you go ahead and do a transfer and actually get pregnant your OHSS symptoms will worsen and take longer to go away. Possibly even up to 12-13 weeks of pregnancy. So, as much as we would want to do a transfer on Monday, if my body is even remotely showing signs of distress we can’t move forward with it.

Our option instead will be to freeze all of our little embryo babies and attempt a frozen embryo transfer in 6-8 weeks, or later, if we choose. And that’s so hard. Because, we’re ready now. We want to put 1 or 2 of our little babies in my womb where they belong. And let them grow there. I’m tired of medicine. I’m tired of appointments. I’m tired of monitoring. I’m just ready to be done with it. And all of a sudden knowing that we may have 2(or more) months of treatment and waiting STILL. That’s really hard to take. Really hard.

The night of 6/10 I triggered with Ovidrel at 11:15pm, took my last lupron, and other pills.

We were ready to go for Egg Retrieval on Wednesday morning!

So, the grand total of meds up to this point have been:

142 pills from 5/6-6/12

39 injections from 5/31-6/12

I have joked that someday I’ll lord this over our little girl or little boy about how much I had to do to get them to us(I mean, I filled up an entire sharps container with used needles, y’all). But, truthfully, if this works, I would gladly, cheerfully, happily do it a million times over just to bring them safely to me.

I’ll update on our actual retrieval tomorrow. Thank you for praying for us and being patient with me!